Valerie, It's D
by hushsweetsummer
Summary: Danny isn't willing to let go of Valerie, no matter how chaotic she thinks her life is for him.
1. Chapter 1: Ghost Side Ache

It has to be one of the worst things in the world: telling one of your best friends you don't share her romantic feelings; that you love her as a friend; and really want to keep your friendship as it is.

It's not fun. It's not noble. It's not right.

_But it has to happen_.

I keep flashing back to when I did it, when I told Sam, "I can't Sam. I still..." It's the reason I haven't touched my lunch yet, and the reason Sam is eating at the farthest table away from me with Tucker, who's alternating his own eating between us in the school cafeteria.

He comes back now, holding a tray of turkey sandwich, hot sauce, and something that looks like pudding but isn't.

"Dude, you seriously messed up," he wheezes, sitting down. "Going back and forth between you two is_ definitely _not my idea of a good time. I haven't excersized this much since rebooting my computer."

"What could I do?" I try hard not to look at Sam, but can't help doing so: I see her stabbing at her beef with as much gusto as a limp cabbage doll. She's even wearing one of the frilliest pink dresses her mother ever shoveled onto her. My Sam, my best friend Sam, would never have allowed that before. She hated anything even crawling the borderline of girlishness.

She hated it until I hurt her, anyway. I rub my forehead. How did it get like this? Better yet, how did I _not _know she liked me sooner?

And how did I not know how much I loved her company until I lost it?

"You sure you two can't--?"

"Forget it Tuck. Look, I know this is bad, but it'd be worse to lie to her and pretend I feel what I don't. I still--" I swallow "--I still want to make it right with Valerie."

"But she broke up with you Dude."

"Yea. I know. And I need to know why. Why she said her life is too dangerous for us to be more than friends. Between that and Sam I don't know what I should do..."

"Try talking with Valerie." Tuck stands. "I better go to Sam now."

"Yea..."

He pats my shoulder as if to encourage me, as if to say: it'll be all right.

The human side of me is touched my the gesture.

The ghost side of me lets it pass right through.

* * *

_A brief work-in-progress exploring the possibility of what would have happened if Danny decided to pursue his existing feelings for Valerie after "Flirting with Disaster". See profile for more details, if you like. Danny and Valerie are my favorite pair in DP, but no disrespect to others (Sam and Danny or Danny and Ember, for instance). I do not own Danny Phantom. _


	2. Chapter 2: Raspberry Table

After school, before the grayed porch steps of the entrance, I try to talk to Sam.

"Can I walk you home?" I ask her.

She ignores me.

"Please Sam. Don't do this. We're best friends, remember?"

Maybe that touches a bit of her heart. She stops, with her back to me. "Look... Danny. I just need some time alone, okay? You rejected my feelings your way; I'm handling my feelings my way."

"But Sam--"

"Leave me alone Danny!"

With those words declared, she runs off. My best friend actually runs away from me.

"Aww," coos Paulina, jarring me from my shock. "Lover's spat?" She and another attention-grubbing socialite, Star, giggle as they walk pass me.

"No," I say, even though they aren't listening. "It was a friendship spat. Because friends argue sometimes. But they always make-up. They can--"

"Danny, who are you talking to?"

"--be friends again..." Oh, great. Add 'talks-to-air' onto the list of 'best-friend-hurter'. "No one," I say to Tucker.

"That's_ kind_ of what I was afraid of. Dude, you should really take it easy."

"You don't hate me for what I did to Sam?"

"Eh, stuff happens buddy. But we're the dynamic trio. We've been together for, like, ever at this point..." He silently shifts his backwards cap forward. It's a little unnerving, he never does that and the last thing I need is for him to change on me too, but soon enough the cap fits back into its regular position. Soon enough, we're back to what we were. "We'll survive." He shrugs.

I smile at that. "We've survived a lot of things already, huh?"

He nods, grinning. "The stories we'll tell when we're old, gray, and slightly deaf to rock-and-roll. Wanna come over to my place and play some video games? Or are you going to try talking to Valerie?"

I scan the moving clumps of people for her. One clump is not a clump-- but a duo. I shake my head, nudge Tuck with my elbow.

"Nah," I say. "Let's go."

It's not the time to see her.

* * *

_I never thought I would think this... but thank goodness for Dash_.

Stuck underneath the most important table ever (at least, right now anyway) was all thanks to the biggest and most popular idiot in the school: Dashiel "Dash" Baxter and his buddy-goon Kwan. When the lunch bell rang the next day at school, they immediately cornered me.

"Now what?" I sighed, although no one needed a reason to have gotten on the bad side of these guys. If they felt in the mood to plummet heads they plummeted heads in typical jock grace: really rough, really hard, really happily. On top of Sam still not speaking to me, and Valerie and I only able to exchange a smile before the atmosphere goes from pleasant to awkward, I was so not in mood to deal with Dash-stamped stupidity. "I breathe too loud for you today?"

"Oh, Fenton's got jokes? Well, they sound like table jokes to me!" Dash hauled me over his shoulder.

"Uh, Dash, not that I'm not flattered but--"

"Shut up Fenton!"

The cafeteria was relatively empty, but only for a few minutes longer. That was just enough time for dumb-and-dumber to strap me under a table with glue, tape, and used gum before a teacher walked in or the cafeteria ladies miraculously cared for once.

"Now that's funny!" Kwan hee-hawed. He and Dash slapped hands loud enough for me to hear it in the shadows of our wooden school furniture. Soon enough, they strutted off. I was left to wait until the increasingly-crowded cafeteria emptied enough for me to Go Ghost and shift pass... clods of raspberry-flavored chewing gum.

Two people suddenly sat on the chairs encircling the table, opposite each other. I was so pushed against the bottom surface of it I didn't have to worry about a leg kicking me. If one of them tried to staple some vanilla-flavored gum to mix up the raspberry, though, I was in trouble.

That's when I heard what I'm hearing now:

"So what is it about Fenton that you like _any_way?"

Valerie is right beside me, right here: at the table I'm underneath. More importantly -- and I try to wipe the gooey expression I _know_ is invading my face--she's talking about me. Or her friend Star is. Now, maybe, I could learn why exactly she broke up with me before we began.

_... thank goodness for Dash_.

"Let's not talk about it," Valerie says.

"No, we need to. It's weird. Super super _weird_. Can't you date someone on the team?"

"I'm not dating anyone."

"_Possibly_ date someone on the team?"

"And get footballs as birthday gifts? No thanks. Oh Star, I'm_ kidding_. I guess... after going through some things... I've changed. I don't even shop at the same places--"

Star shudders down to her new shoes. "I've noticed."

They giggle at that, and I wildly wish I could string Valerie's laugh into a bracelet, wear it around my wrist and then give it to her. She's too serious sometimes; having her laugh as a gem, not a chain, might loosen her up... might let her like me more.

"Why did you break it off with Fenton?"

There's a long, torturous pause.

"It's complicated," she softly admits.

"Be specific!" I hiss in frustration.

Star's troubled voice pops out, "Okay, like, not that I believe in ghosts like Fenton's parents, but I could have sworn a voice just said 'Be scientific!'" A scrapping sound, like something being pushed, hits the air. "No more cafeteria food for _me_."

Valerie, thankfully, ignores her friend. "It's just that... I don't think I should be with anyone. The stuff I go through isn't something I want to involve anyone important to me if I don't have to."

"And the child of ghost-hunting_ freaks_ is important to you?"

The noise of nervousness takes shape; my heartbeat hammers into my eardrums like thunder. I'm fully human. This answer won't go through me. My body will absorb whatever she says, however she decides to place me in her life. If I'm not worth it I'll let it go. Feelings change...

But...

If she wants to get back together too...

"Yea. He is."

I don't hear anything else. The thunder rooted in my ears?

Its yellow color has just begun to dance.

* * *

_...But when are you going to get from underneath the table Danny? (Laugh.) Thank you to everyone who has reviewed!_ _Thank you for the warning as well Dream Trance; I had no idea the shipping disputes were still so fierce! Hope 2010 is finding all well outside of that. ~HSS_


End file.
